


Tokyo Ghoul: Reverse

by linkzeldi



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-03 03:29:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6594805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/linkzeldi/pseuds/linkzeldi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In this world those who were born human are now born ghouls, and vice versa. The two most important half ghouls in the story also switch roles, as one leads Aogiri and the other becomes a pawn of the CCG.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tokyo Ghoul: Reverse

“Weren’t you going to save me?”

Quiet. 

The child laughed as he squeezed his throat. 

‘You remember, don’t you?” The Child Said, “A foolish begging young one.”

He was really beat a lot by the people he loved the most.

“Hey,” The child said to him, “I was happy, in the underground flower field. Back then, I got to meet the reaper. And then, like the maggot mommy was, I too… But I messed it up, I didn’t die.”

Did I want to die?

“Definitely, that’s why this time, make sure to do something that will allow you to be loved by everyone. A good thing, a bad thing, it doesn’t matter, you see I want to die in style!”

I am a sweet dream. Once the sleep falls from the eyes, and I begin to cry it’s all over. 

Having reached this point in the story, a bookish older woman readjusted her glasses, and read the passage over again. Something bothered her about it, she thought, reading the words a third and a fourth time repeating them like she had some kind of complex about them. 

Unchanging despair lurks in Tokyo. 

A white haired man in glasses looked up from the book he was reading. It was the crossbreed, by Franz Kafka, a personal favorite of his. Across from him, a dark haired boy sat in his seat rocking back and forth. Most would be uncomfortable in the presence of Kishou Arima, but this boy was just bored. 

“So the squad leader will be Ginshi Shirazu?” Arima asked, before putting his book down and casually stepping on the table. The boy groaned, but mirrored the same action. They began to spar, and outside the noise of their conflict could be heard by a woman in a red robe, who merely sighed. 

“What about Kuki Urie?” Arima said, with a blank face as he aimed a devastating upper cut at the boy which he died. 

“Urie is surely an excellent ghoul. He takes after his father in every regard, but call me a self loathing person but that kind of personality really bores me,” The boy remarked. He wondered if that would cause an expression in Kishou Arima briefly, but of course it did not elicit any kind of reaction. 

That was just as boring. 

Arima tilted his head to the right to avoid the boy’s forward strike just slightly. “That’s fitting for you.”

“I want to develop Urie’s character, and Shirazu who is dull in his wits and interesting in every other regard could probably benefit from the ex-per-” He was caught by a kick and thrown back onto the edge of the table, forced to cough up the last words, “i-ence.”

“Shirazu is Fura’s little brother, yes?” Arima asked, as he approached for the finishing blow. 

“Why the sudden aggression are you acting out of misplaced fondness?” 

“That overdeveloped sense of empathy of yours, I wonder if you’re really using it to understand those under you, or just enjoy them like characters in a novel.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem for you, Arima, since nobody could ever understand you.”

The boy felt a finger hovering just above his eye. “Do you surrender?”

“No.”

At once, the both of them drew Kagune out. The battle would have escalated were it not for the timely intervention of the robed figure, losing her patience and flipping the table sending both of them onto the ground. Their Kagune dissolved into mist, and the boy was the first one up offering his hand to Arima. 

“You two boys need to stop fighting,” Akira said, her eyes leering out from under her red hood. 

“Thank you for assisting me in this project of mine anyway, Arima. Even though I’m nothing more than a brat who can’t resist biting the hand of his own father,” His demeanor had completely changed in a fraction of a second. 

Yet Arima still did not register any response. He simply stood up and looked aside. “Well, as your father, I should want to have some grandkids of my own.”

Then the both of them, able to read the impatience in Akira’s face just by seeing her eyes, decided it would be best to leave.

“Are you done collecting candidates yet?” Arima asked him as they began to walk out from the abandoned mall they had met in. 

“There was one more, I wanted to bring before you to get your approval,” the boy said.

“You don’t really need my approval,” Arima said. “I am just a body sitting upon a throne after all.”

Reaper pulled up his hood.

Spine user, placed her half mask back on. 

And the third ghoul followed with them flanking on either side, like a child being minded by his parents. 

They mix in with the crowd, eating human flesh. 

Mutsuki Tooru brushed his nose. “Uh, is someone talking about me?” He remarked in a quiet voice. 

“Be careful!” His partner snapped at him, “If you get sick from the patient's blood then that’s your own fault.”

Mutsuki realized that his hand had been covered in blood, and in his unconscious action he had covered his own mouth in blood, and ran away from the stretcher he had been helping carry to the truck in order to bend down and vomit into the bushes. 

“Why did he get a job as an ambulance driver if he acts like that everytime he sees blood, shithead.” The other man he worked with walked off to take a smoke break to sate his annoyance. 

When Mutsuki vomitted though, nothing came up from his stomach but empty juice. This was because 1) he had mostly been faking the vomit to hide something, and 2) he had not eaten recently enough for there even to be anything in his stomach. What he wanted to hide, those uncontrollable eyes of his blinked and showed their kakugan. When people told him he had a terrifying glare they were right, but they would never know how right they were.

He looked back to the dead body they had been ordered to carry to the hospital, unable to suppress his Kakugan now that his face had become smeared in human blood. The human he worked with was right though, why was he even born a ghoul if he could not stand the sight of flesh. 

They pretend to be humans, yet they exist entirely different from them.

“Kijima! Kijima!” A man wearing a borrowed neck tie and suit called out into the night. He collapsed to his knees, and his shoulders hitched. A sob would normally follow suit, but the man found himself strangely tearless. 

“Are you out looking for him again on your own, leapyear-san?” A small girl following who had remained unnoticed until this moment decided to make her present known. When she watched the man in front of her crank his head back to reveal a face with a mole underneath his right eye, and a bob of black hair parted behind his ear, she knew she had followed the right target. 

“Oh, little mouse?” He said, eyes changing upon recognizing her and cracking a smile, “I didn’t know you would come all the way out here for little old me.”

Chie Hori lowered the camera she had been using to look at him through, “You really do change on a dime, huh?”

Humans call them-

“Oy-Ayato, Ayato, Ayato!” Naki said jumping up and down in place. 

“Quiet, dumbass! What part of tailing them silently do you not get?” Ayato looked back at him from his binoculars. He wore a leather jacket with a fur collar over his standard CCG uniform. While Naki also dressed off uniform by wearing a white suit jacket, rather than the trench coat that was required. 

“No, I was just thinking if we’re chasing after an ambulance, shouldn’t we just find somebody whose insured?”

“You mean injured-” Ayato said, and then turned back to face Naki with a scary expression, “You know if you weren’t so much of a dumbass I might actually feel bad about this.”

-Ghouls

Hinami put her book down. She brushed her hair, that was getting a little too long for her to manage, back behind her ear. The difficult Kanji that she had highlighted throughout the page, she began to diligently write them down in her notebook.

She leaned back in her chair and stretched. “I’ll have to ask Takatsuki-Sensei about this later.”

A new story begins

“Are you kidding, I’ve read this one before!”

In a fit of childish pique, she threw the book across the room. ‘The King of Fakes’ by novelist Sasaki Haise. Of all the memories she could possibly recover, it just had to be the spoilers to a book she was looking forward to reading.

She looked past where the book had fallen on top of a pile of other books, in her messy room, and adjusted her glasses thinking, yes, that was fine the way it was and left. Muttering under her breath, “I really hate past me right now,” as she left the Chateau to begin her day.

“Ghouls. A being that takes the appearance of a human, and possesses a predatory organ unique to them. Eating human flesh is the only way for them to survive, therefore they are humanity’s natural enemy. Therefore we as the CCG strive to… are you taking note?”

“Wow, as expected of you Takatsuki-sensei. You’re so reliable,” Shiono, the CCG’s public relations manager said as he clapped his hands together. “You must have been an author in your past life.”

“That’s entirely possible, I suppose,” Takatsuki smiled, and did not seem at all wistful, even though unlike Shiono she had been a human being who had lived two lifetimes and now was in the middle of her second. “Have you seen Investigator Tatara around here?”

“Ah, she went out earlier,” Shiono said, as he sorted his papers. 

“Oh no, oh no, I was supposed to meet him here. I can’t believe I’m late again,” Sen said, running her hands through her long green hair in stress. She was about to take off, the white coat she wore fluttering behind her as she turned around when Shiono called out to her.

“Before you run off, do you know where he went?”

Sen turned back and offered him a thumbs up. “Yes!” Then ran off without explaining further.

“Maybe it’s better off you didn’t become an author,” Shiono said to himself as he returned to his work, “It seems like you’d be a difficult person to manage.”

“I’m so late, I’m so late,” Sen said as she ran into the noodle shop, sliding on her feet to land just before the table, “Safe!”

“You’re out entirely,” Tatara said coldly. He slammed the files Takatsuki had requested on the table in front of her, as he sat down in his chair.

The waiter laid foot out in front of both of them, chinese noodles. Tatara dug into his right away, but Sen instead of touching her food picked a cup of coffee up and pressed it to her lips. “‘Butt-chinned Tatara can barely manage the pack of wild dog’s he’s been assigned.’ That’s what I hear those clowns saying about us.”

Sen spit up her coffee. “Your chin is just fine, Tatara.”

“That’s not the part you were supposed to focus on,” Tatara snapped, noodles dripping out of his mouth. Sen wondered if Tatara was employing this as some kind of pyschological warfare against her. Her only retort was to keep smiling obliviously no matter how harsh he grew. “Turtlenecks aren’t regulation you know,” He said, referring to her outfit where she wore the CCG overcoat over fashionable clothes instead of the suits that investigators usually were used to wearing. 

“I can’t help it I overslept,” Setn deflected. 

“Sen,” He said his voice calming down. Sen actually leaned back and watched him with eyes wide open, surprised at the change in tone. 

“Several months ago, when we left the quinckes in your hands, Buraeu chief Mirumo told you this. Raise an inspector who can surpass Noroi.”

“Surpass Noro,’ Sen repeated quietly back t herself for a moment. Noroi was a ghoul inspector of the highest rank, a special-class investiagor. He had a countless number of achievements and was hailed as the strongest and most invincible investigator within the CCG. He was also attending this meeting, but had remained characteristically silent, and had plucked flowers from a nearby vase at the restaurant without asking to sew into Eto’s hair. “How do you think he feels about that?”

Tatara exhaled to vent his frustation. “You understand our current position do you not?” He said clasping his hands in front of his face like a war general deeply pondering might, “The ghoul organization is continuing to increase it’s influence. It’ll be an all out war eventually, and I can pay them back for China. You’re a part of this organization too, and if the Quincke’s are going to become a reliable tool to surpass Noroi, then as the one raising them, you have to be the one that surpasses him.”

“As I said before, I’d rather not surpass Noro.”

Noroi put a hand on Sen’s shoulder, when she started to lean down and look rejected.

“It’s Noroi, and you should sit down and eat with the both of us instead of spending the time spoiling Sen. You’re her superior not her parent.”

Noroi pulled his hood down, and looked at Tatara with blank eyes.

“Noro says he doesn’t mind being called Noro, it’s like a fun nickname,” Sen said smugly sipping her coffee, and then set it down too on it’s saucer to address Tatara. “As I was saying, if I were to surpass Noro wouldn’t he become obsolete to the CCG then? I wonder what would happen to him, or maybe the CCG is actively trying to make him obsolete, either way I want no part in it.”

“Oh I see, is this what they call the bond between child and parent?”

“Can’t say,” Sen answered him back quickly, and noticed he did not confirm nor deny her claims. “I suppose we’ll have to keep talking on this subject after the torso investigation is concluded-” “Sen-” He called out, receiving Takatsuki’s undivided attention a second time, “You’re as sharp as ever, and the ace of the Chi Shi Lan squad. I don’t care what others say about you, or how much you mouth off to me, as long as you continue to be of use. I’m willing to use anybody who will be of benefit, remember that, Rank one investigator Takatsuki Sen.”

He stood up, but before he could reach for his chair Sen caught him by one of the long sleeves he wore on his coat. “Can I have a hug?”

“No,” Tatara said, and walked away even faster. 

Before Sen could even begin to be disappointed by that though, Noro had already picked her up into a crushing hug. Being hugged by the most terrifying CCG agent, and a man most ghouls referred to as ‘the curse’ was not all that it was cracked up to be, but Sen appreciated the thought, and smiled up at him. 

“Why did you come though, Noro?” Sen asked. And then, “Oh, you wanted to give back the book you lent me. Ohohoh, you didn’t have to schedule a meeting just for that. Did you want anything else? A haircut perhaps?” She said as she tugged on the long black pony tail Noroi tended to wear. 

Sen guessed by Noroi’s hasty putting her back down into her chair, and then retreat meant that he was not interested. Noroi had a terrifying reputation because of his habit of almost never talking, but after spending nearly three years in his squad Sen had gotten down translating most of his mannerisms. Even if she bullied him on occasion, Sen really did think that she owed everything to Noroi, who put his best effort into picking her out and mentoring her like a parent might have. Noroi was so devoted he had been accused of spoiling her several times, until finally she was transferred to be Tatara’s new subordinate, due to his reptutation of being strict. 

Sen did not mind though. Tatara’s stark honesty was almost refreshing. If Noro was the parent who spoiled, then Tatara was the withholding parent. Then just like a child, Sen looked down at the food on her plate and stuck her tongue out at it. 

“If you get so squeamish at the sight of blood, one wonders why you subjected yourself to the Quinx surgery,” Kanou said, talking to himself more than Hinami. He had that habit, he was affable enough to socialize with others, but he seemed to view people as more objects of interest than actual living beings to connect with. 

Sometimes it unnerved Sen how well they got along. So much so, she could tell Kanou had noticed her approach, but also allowed her to hide so he could continue talking, and she could listen. 

“Somebody told me once, that you need to be strong to protect the people you love or else you’ll lose them.”

“What kind of person would say that to a little girl?” Kanou’s words might have been mistaken for empathic, but really he was merely curious. 

“It wasn’t really a terrible thing to say, he was right.”

“You’re fortunate then, the Quinx surgery I devised for you is much safer than the one Sen endured.”

“Sen?” Hinami mirrored back at him, in a voice of almost perfect innocence. 

“They won’t let you know about your own beloved mentor. The CCG really is stingy. Sen was a little known reporter who was caught in an accident, then brought under the surgical knife of rogue Doctor Chigyou, having another ghoul’s kakuhou implanted inside of her. The quinxes trained by their own prototype, the CCG may be stingy but apparently they have a sense of humor.”

“Haven’t you heard Kanou, life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think,” Sen said as she made her presence known by pulling back the curtain. She tried to lean against the wall to look more intimidating but ended up leaning back on another curtain, and stumbling and then regaining her footing. 

“There you are Sen, three of your subordinates bolted the moment their checkups were finished. You should thank Fueguchi, she’s quite the loyal subordinate to wait for you when you’re always late.”

“As usual Kanou, I can’t tell whether you’re trying to be kind or brutal with me,” Sen said plainly, then turning to Hinami, then her hands immediately found a place to play in her hair, “Of course Hina-sweetie waited because she loves her big sis.”

“Actually I wanted to ask you for help with this book I’m reading.”

Sen let her head fall down, dejected. 

“Because nobody is better at reading than my big sis,” Hinami said in a high voice, and Sen’s mood rose with it.

“Your hair is getting a little long,” She said as she cupped Hinami’s ears. 

“You think so?”

“Do you want me to cut it for you again?”

“It took my bangs a month to grow back last time.”

“That was the chair’s fault.”

Kanou was beginning to see, Sen was closer to the bullying-but-still-affectionate big sister archetype, then to the caretaker type of sibling. 

“Did you finish the book I lent you?” Hinami asked, big eyes brimming with anticipation. 

“Yeah,” Sen said, looking off suddenly.

“What do you mean just yeah, you never finish a book without something good to say about it.”

“Well I remembered the ending before I even finished the book,” Sen said, as she stood up to leave bidding Hinami follow after her. When they were clear and in the open she looked up at the sky in front of her, “Haise Sasaki, I wonder what my past self must have thought of his books.”

What Hinami did not mention was. The reason the book was well-worn. Or the reason a teenager like Hinami had come to possession of such a mature book was, that it had been Sen’s past self who gave her that same book. She merely watched, searching out for a trace of her sister in those inscrutable green eyes of Sen. 

“Where did the rest of those kids run off to anyway?” Sen asked, looking around. 

Hinami laughed under her breath, “The way you address them makes you sound like an old woman.”

“Well I am, I’ve already become the batty old woman in charge of watching you in these few short months.”

“Flowers,” Hinami murmured.

“Yes, I’m no spring flower anymore.”

“No, flowers in your hair.”

“Oh,” Sen said as she reached up to the flowers Noro had put in her hair, that she had forgotten about and let fall out as she went about her day. “I can’t very well wear these during a fight with a ghoul now can I?” She plucked them out of her hair one by one, but when she saw Hinami’s regretful look at them being thrown away she put one in front of her face. “Would you like one?”

“They went off to investigate Torso without you,” Hinami finally spat out, as if keeping the great secret had been destroying her. 

“All except for-” Sen led.

“All except for Tomoe who called Naki and Ayato idiots, and then went to tattle to Tatara.”

“THen we should hurry up and get there before Tatara does,” Sen began, and then, “Oh, and before anybody dies I suppose that is important too.”

Elsewhere, the two disobedient children had finished their fight. “Rest in peace, Naki,” Ayato said coldly as he watched his friend sink to the ground and start to bleed out. He pulled a smart phone from his pocket and calmly dialed the local ambulance number, “Hello, my friend got involved in some local gang violence and they roughed him up real bad. Please send your nearest truck.”

Naki, instead of being angered like he should have been, laughed. “Hah, this reminds me of the time with big bro and the staircase, good times.” He rapped the back of his knuckle on the ground, “Ghouls, ghouls, ghouls,” he muttered in anticipation as they watched the ambulance turn around. 

“You know you could at least pretend to be dead.”

“That’s right I’m dead, dead as a toenail.”

“Doornail,” Ayato corrected, and then with an exhaustive sigh walked up to meet the ambulance driver. 

“It’s just you?” He asked.

“Oh, my partner is on break,” Mutsuki said as he deliberately looked away from the red blood staining Naki’s white suit. Blood always interfered with pure colors like that, it sank into the snow and festered. 

“You know you should be careful, I heard a lot of corpses from ghoul attacks have been showing up in this area lately,” Ayato said, as he took a step forward. 

Mutsuki stepped back instinctively and lowered his head, “You don’t say.”

Ironically not far from here, another ghoul attack was happening and the subject of Torso came up once again. “I know that Cafe has been hiding Torso, so out with it,” The black haired ghoul said as he kicked the ghoul he had cornered right in the guts. 

The cornered ghoul collided with a wall from a single kick, “What the hell?” He muttered in his dazed state as he coughed out blood. 

“You’re Furuta Nimura, right?” The ghoul attacking him had long dark hair, and wore a clown mask with large lips and an x over one of his eyes. 

Furuta clapped his hands together, “Ah, is this a guessing game. Then you must be the bastard known as centipede.”

The boy named centipede laughed as he leaned over Furuta’s prone form, “Is that what they’re calling me now? Fine, as a kid I do love games, next question what do you think a centipede sounds like scratching up the inside of your ear?”

Furuta began to sweat, he tugged on his bowtie like it was a noose around his neck. “I wouldn’t know, I’m really just a waiter.”

Losing patience, Centipede drew out his kagune his one revealed eye turning black and red with the action, until the sound of a camera coming from behind stunned him, and dissolved his kagune into mist. Centipede turned around to see a ghoul with a mouse mask, peering at him through a camera lens. 

“Leapyear-san, you always manage to get into trouble when you wander off,” Chie Hori drily commented. 

“I’m sorry, it’s because I’m such a ditz,” Furuta rapped on the side of his head with his knuckles as if he thought he were in the middle of a comedy situation, and not a tense standoff. 

“Coming to protect your friend, that’s good of you,” Centipede said, his demeanor changing. 

“Ah, that’s probably what I’m doing,” Chie lowered her camera, “Though to be honest unlike you a mysterious S Ranked, I’m just a lowly C ranked ghoul. If you really wanted to kill both of us there would be nothing I could do to stop you.”

Centipede hesitated, “Aren’t you scared?”

“I’m terrified, really. That’s why I’m going to sell out Torso’s location to you,” Chie said without once changing the tone of her voice. 

Centipede softened even further, “I’m sorry, making you choose between your friends like that, it must be rough,” And for one even Chie was confused as to whether or not what he said at that moment was genuine or just a further ploy.

“Torso has a terrifying reputation, but really they-”

“Can’t stand the sight of blood?” Ayato commented, as he watched Mutsuki struggle to get Naki into the truck. He was nearly over Mutsuki’s shoulder now, “You know every investigator thought that Torso cut off the limbs of his victim’s because he was sick, but what if he did it because that’s all he could stand to eat. He was a weakling who couldn’t stand to swallow a full human body, but had to find some way to protect himself so he started spreading rumors about his acts in order to make his reptuation terrifying enough that everybody would leave him alone.”

Mutsuki said nothing, he was frozen in place. 

“That was just a theory though, that wouldn’t explain how Torso could collect bodies with such a range if he was so weak. Unless, and I had the lab checkc this, he only collected dead bodies, and what did you know all the wounds to the bodies were delivered post mortem. Which means his most likely profession was-”

Even if Mutsuki felt paralyzed his basic instincts to live kicked in. He elbowed Ayato back with all of his ghoul strength and dove forward into the open door, slamming on the gas. The dead human he had left in the back of the van then, rose up. “Hello, I’m back from the grape.”

He grabbed Mutsuki behind and the two struggled against the wheel for a moment, as Mutsuki prayed for once in his life his Kagune to come out. No such luck, so Mutsuki took the still lit cigarette that had been left burning in the car’s ash tray and jammed it into Naki’s eye. Naki fell backwards, and hit the road, bouncing and skidding until he collided with Ayato. 

“What kind of humans are those?” Mutsuki muttered, as he looked behind him and saw Naki getting up, his injuries already starting to heal. 

“Haha, did you break your quinque Ayato?” Naki said as he recovered.

“That’s only beacuse you landed on me shithead,” Ayato shoved Naki off of him, and looked around frantic for something to continue the chase. 

“Looks like we’ll have to ride on the Yamotorcycle!” Naki shouted.

“Do you have to name everything after that man?” Ayato said bitterly as he looked at the burly white motorcycle that Naki had inherited from his older brother when the senior ghoul investigator died. 

The two of them were off then chasing the ambulance down the street. Just when Mutsuki thought they could not get any more inhuman, shards of Kagune dug into the metal near the ambulance’s back tires. Mutsuki looked back once again and saw blood red wings sprout form Ayato’s back as he sat up, holding onto Naki’s head for balance and making Naki’s driving even harder. 

Meanwhile Sen was leaning into the front window as she looked around vigilant for two of her other students, making the police man she had borrowed the car from who was currently driving’s job a hundred times harder. “What was Ayato investigating last?” Sen said, head moving left and right rapidly like an owl.

“He ordered an autopsy on one of the bodies,” Hinami said, then lowering her eyes, “I didn’t really want to follow him because it smelled so terrible down there, I’m sorry.”

“No it’s fine Hina-sweetie your information helped,” Sen said quickly and automatically as she was trying to figure out in minutes what conclusion Ayato came after weeks of Solo-investigation, “Ayato’s insurance called me telling me they woudn’t be covering his expenses for any more ambulance calls this month,” Sen snapped her fingers, and started laughing like a madman, “Ohohoho.”

“Ummm,” the police officer said.

“It’s okay, she just does that,” Hinami said, only sounding slightly beleaguered this time. 

Sen ordered the police man to pull to the address of the last known ambulance call in the area. Just as they got there, they saw the chase between the motorcycle boys and the fleeing torso already underway on the horizon. Sen ordered the police man to follow, then when they were right next to the ambulance, grabbed the edge of the wheel and turned it without asking causing them to slam into the side of the ambulance. 

THe ambulance was ran off course and knocked on it’s side, and so was the police car, equal and opposite reactions and all. Mutsuki crawled out of the ambulance, and having forgotten his mask, wore a surgical mask to cover his face instead. 

“We’re really up against some poser of a ghoul who doesn’t even have a real mask?” Ayato shouted as he jumped from Naki’s motorcycle a few seconds early, and landed on the tar. He started to remove his leather jacket, his bright red feathered kagune coming out as he finished unzipping. 

“You should be careful what you wish for,’ A voice called out from above just as Ayato shot a torrent of his Kagune for the finishing move. The figure stood undisturbed as a wave of kagune shards in the shape of a tornado rushed forward towards him, and disappeared right before they made contact, carrying Torso with him. 

Centipede set Torso on the ground and knelt down to speak with him. “Mutsuki Tooru, a low rank ghoul who took on the alter ego of Torso after being imprisoned in the Cochlea under warden Karao Saeki, but you killed him to escape nod if I’m right.”

Too shocked to say anything, Mutsuki just nodded, focusing his eyes on Centipede. 

“I’m sorry, I’m going to take away the chance to repent for your crime of being born as a ghoul with your death right now,” Centipedes words were strange but they seemed sincere. 

Mutsuki was unsure where he had gotten the energy to fight for his life, just mere minutes ago. Everything seemed to heavy. It always ended up like this in the end, his family, anteiku, cochlea, Re: and now Aogiri, he just existed to be used by others. “That’s okay,” Mutsuki said, closing their eyes and hiding his glare, his last piece of resistance. 

“You fought hard enough, stand down,” Centipede said something completely unnecessary again, he had already found the recruit he wanted it was not like he needed to contragulate them. 

“Who the hell is this?” Ayato shouted, losing patience that he had to share his credit with Naki already. 

Instead of an answer, Ayato was met with a giant four tailed kagune that slammed into the ground in front of him, that he just narrowly dodged. The Kagune picked up and threw the ambulance in his direction, causing Naki to have to jump off his motorcycle and abandon it. 

“Ah, who am I? Who am I? What a ridiculous question, I am who I am,” He sat with legs crossed atop the crashed ambulance as if it were a throne. “And you are the quincke’s I presume. You have Kagune? For real, the CCG calls Aogiri depraved, you’re the bad guys not us.” Centipede stood up and threw off the cloak he had been wearing, revealing underneath, a slick battlesuit, the cut out midsection he had covered with bandages which already had begin to peel away as he used his kagune. The four kagune shattered, and reformed into a great claw behind his back with four individual talons. “Let’s give into depravity and play awhile then,” the Kagune hand reached out for them scraping along the pavement as it did.

Ayato already was beginning to feel exhausted. 

“Maybe we should pull back, Ayato!” Naki said, panic rising in his already emotional voice.

Ayato remembered, the tear stains on his father’s face. As he pulled him aside and explained. His mother had been the one to stay behind and fight the reaper, so the rest of the squad can escape. 

When he stood there frozen in place, Naki rushed forward drawing his own Koukaku kagune out slicing forward with what looked like an insect’s apendage to cut the Kagune in half. The kagune reacted to being sliced in half by wrapping half of itself around Naki and throwing him into a wall. 

“Looks like you guys could become trouble, I’ll have to pluck you before it’s too late,” Centipede summarize coldly. 

“Don’t underestimate me,” Ayato finally ran forward instinctively to help Naki, Ayato ran forward only to see Centipede disappear, and reappear beneath him. Before Ayato could react there was a knee in his gut, and the ghoul grabbed him by his shoulders and let him slowly fall down. 

From this close, he could see Centipede’s single shown eye. The eye watched him, and widened slightly, “Kirishima? Nevermind, this is too boring, I won’t kill you.”

“What the hell are you saying? I won’t accept a ghoul’s mercy.” he scrambled to his feet and bit the flesh of his arm, trying to get his Kagune to come back out again. Before he could though, a claw large enough to block out the moon’s light it seemed rose up again from the stranger’s back and came to slam down on Ayato. 

Just it cut in half again, but this time a mouth rose up from the sword she used to cut, and devoured the kagune that aimed to attack her shattering it. “Your eyes are as sharp as ever Ayato, but brats sometimes really need to learn to keep their mouth shut,” Sen said as she appeared in front of him to save him. 

Ayato would have struggled more, if Hinami had not appeared behind him in that moment and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, “It’s okay Ayato, you’ve fought enough.” Ayato grunted his disatisfaction, but he still relaxed. “Have to fight, have to fight, can’t be weak like father was,” He murmured under his breath and into Hinami’s arms. 

“This is an order from your superior, stand down,” Sen said looking back at him as she withdrew the quincke that Noro had lent her, Ginkui, and let the back of her white cloak fly free. 

“Who’re you, the black goat?” The centipede stopped narrowing his one eye as he watched her run and dodge his many tendrils as they sliced through the air.

“Don’t! Touch! What’s! Mine!” She shouted punctuating each mark with a dodge of his kagune strike, until she was right upon him. 

Centipede disappeared and reappeared below her, pulling the same move he did on Ayato, ramming his knee into her stomach, and then catching her with a single finger on the enlarged lip of his mask, “Just shut up for now and listen. Okay!” With the last, he punctuated her with a kick throwing her body back in front of her precious squad.

His kagune which had been shattered again, bubbled up behind his back again, this guy had an extra amount of kagune. “On second thought I don’t care who you are, if you get in my way, I’ll pluck you too!”

“Who?” Sen asked, as she lay on the ground regenerating, “Is plucking who?” She jumped up again and dodging his kagune strikes she was next to him again, cupping her face in her hands, looking relaxed and arrogant. “Would I be able to finish all of you?” She activated her kakugan, in only one eye. Her kagune came out from her shoulders then, looking like four twisted hands reaching out, veins rising out like wires or metal, and mouths appearing on it. “Go dig! Go dig! Yahoo! Taste bad!” The mouths on her kagune called out as they pierced through centipede. 

Centipede fell on the ground, after being thrown by her wild kagune that whipped around in every direction like it had a mind of it’s own, but he did not seem to disturbed by it. “You’re really strong after all,” he spoke as if he was making conversation, “If you wanted to you could have killed me already. But I’ve figured out your secret.”

“Huh?” One of the mouths on Eto’s kagune asked for her. 

“You’re not like them are you? So why are you protecting them? Hey,” he asked.

Her kagune mouths repeated, “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.”

“That strike right now was so weak, are you holding back? Do you really want to kill me? Do you really want to protect them?” He asked as he slowly as he stood back up again, his wounds already healed. The two of them regenerated at the same rate. Except he did not have a resstriction on how much he could use his Kagune. 

Sen said nothing, she just restructured her Kagune breaking apart and getting rid of the mouths and instead she looked like an angel whose feathers had been plucked and only the skeleton of the wings remained. 

“Be careful, you’re going to scare your students. They’ll realize their precious teacher isn’t like them, that she’s a ghoul,” Centipede taunted her. 

She jumped into the air and aimed another strike, this time of Ukaku projectiles. He dodged her by running to the side. The two of them exchanged Kagune blows, and centipede’s shattered, but he grabbed onto her and threw her back. Was he holding back against her as well? What a hypocrite.

When she saw Hinami look concerned out of the corner of her eye, and move to go to her side. She stood up once again, and called out to them in a condescending voice, “Stand back. You guys are too weak to be of any use anyway.” She taunted them, and then with a serious face, “It’s an order from your superior.”

“I won’t go after them anymore,” Centiped called out to her, almost to reassure her, “Compared to those brats, I’m much more interested in you.”

“Well then,” Sen said, letting her long hair fall over her eyelids for a moment, “I’m so flattered!” She looked up, her kakugan appearing in one eye once more. Her kagune bubbled up from her back, through her shoulders, covering her head and smothering her. The mouths said again.

“Heart pounding! Tension boogie woogie!”

She grow many more eyes on the side of her face as a kakuja took over. Her kagune now shot out like a whip, shattering Centipede’s defenses and piercing straight through him. He cried out in pain like a child would, suddnely losing all of his composure, until Sen slammed him against a wall to finish him off. 

His mask fell off and shattered in the commotion. Sen used her kagune to leap a great distance, and landed on the ground next to him. Words rose from his limp body, “I really like taking a hit, right?”

He looked up at her, and from this close she could see every last detail of her face. He only had one Kakugan activated, his black hair stained with blood dripping off from ti’s ends, “We’re totally the same, Right? Eto Yoshimura.”

“Kaneki Ken?” She said, without even realizing what the words she said meant. Sen felt a sudden pounding on the back of her eyeballs, like a spear was growing out from the inside of them, gouging. She crumpled over as the kagune that covered her face threatened to cover her whole face, spreading across her without her consent. 

Takatsuki Sen.

The former SSS ranked ghoul NO-Kill Owl who possessed an unbelievably strong Kakuja. 

Without her memories she has no hope of controlling it anymore.

In the event of this happening, the first priority is to subdue her, but if that is not an option then she will be disposed of. 

A few days later, Sen sat in a cafe head in her arms as she rested on the table, moping. She had invited her entire squad to come but only Hinami came along. “Are you sulking?” the girl asked, her voice not at all hiding how stunned she was that a twenty seven year old would be acting this childishly in public, in broad daylight. 

“Tatara-chi got angry at me that I used my Kakuja again, you should have seen the way he looked at me, like I was a maggot. He says I always act too recklessly and confident of my own strength with no regard for others.” A groan arose from in between the cracks of Sen’s arms as she refused to look up.

Hinami scooted closer to pat her on the back, “Hey, at least you’re out of the hospital quick. Did you read any of those books I left you with?”

“More of those Haise Sasaki books, yeah, I finished all 12 of his during my hospital stay.”

Hinami looked exhausted, “It cost all of this week’s paycheck to buy you the full set, you could at least make them last a little longer.” Then Hinami too, started to pout in public as if she were a child right next to Sen. “Did you at least like them?”

“They’re probably, my favorite thing I’ve read.”

Hinami perked up a little bit.

“The way the author writes tragedy is unique though, he seems to repeat the same motife over and over again of people wanting to cling to each other, but instead vowing to distance themselves to protect each other, I think the author is probably somebody who wants to be loved.”

Hinami let a small smile form on her lips, “Then you might actually like this cafe, the author of those books is rumored to show up here from time to ti-” She squeaked in surprise when the doorbell rang. 

“Ho?” Sen said, raising her head from her sulk.

Hinami watched, a man with two colored hair black and white, wearing glasses, pinstripes and a black dress shirt over his broad shoulders cross the room almost in slow motion. Sen turned around in time too and caught it out of the corner of her eye. 

“That’s Haise Sasaki right there, turn around and look but don’t be obvious about it-” But before Hinami could finish Eto was already up out of her chair. 

“What do you mean, you need another delay on your deadline?” Kirishima Touka said, leaning against the counter as she dealt with her unruly client.

“Well the person I wanted to read my latest work, I finally-” Haise stopped and looked at the food Touka had been eating. He picked up the cinnaemon bun from her plate and shoved it in his own mouth, after chewing he smiled, “Cinnaemon buns, that’s really fitting for you Touka. Buns for a bunny.”

Touka groaned, “Not more puns.” Then she noticed a figure waiting behind Haise, “Hey, get out of the way somebody wants to order.”

“Oh, sorry,” Haise politely took a step back and turned around to greet the person, and found himself face to face with Sen, gray eyes meeting green ones. He stared at her through the lenses of his glasses for a moment. Perhaps it was just the relfection of his lenses, but all at once, he looked distant and sad.

For some reason, of all the books she had imbibed in the past few days a particular phrase came to her mind. 

She truly loved him.

But she didn’t know how to love.

“Are you alright?” Haise said, leaning in a little closer. 

Sen tilted her head. It wasn’t until her vision began to blur that Sen realized she was crying. She wiped her face immediately, embarrassed to be showing such weakness. “I was just going to ask for an autograph-” she started to explain, she wanted to, but her voice got lost in her crying. 

“Hey, I’m really sorry, was it something I did?” Haise said, voice starting to panic, amongst a flood of other apologies as he scrambled to find some napkins to wipe her face. His voice, along with everything else seemed to fade away in that moment. Sen wondered if this dream like existence would go on forever.


End file.
